Academy of Falling Kingdoms Box Set

by Marisa Mills

  Suddenly a shriek pierced the room. Jessa jumped up, clutching the book with one hand, as she curled one arm around her head and balanced on one leg. Her mage tech blinked under the pressure.

  “Stretching?” Viviane teased.

  “It’s a dance!” Jessa said, waving us over. “I thought it looked familiar, it’s similar to the illustrations Conrad sketches on the chalkboard for class. They’re stick figures, each one is a pose. If you cycle through them, it’s a whole movement.”

  She flipped the pages quickly, and the little figure in the corners now looked like it was dancing, spiraling and leaping to a silent rhythm.

  Viviane’s eyes lit up. She raced to the table to grab a pen and pad of paper.

  “There’s a letter on each page. Maybe if we add them in order…”

  We gathered around her as she began collecting the letters into sentences.

  The path is broken, the door is shut,

  Three mages circle, weave and strut,

  Demons from here to there return

  But first the portal dance must turn.

  What does it mean? Lucian asked, purring over my shoulder.

  “If it is what I think it is…” I said slowly, “it’s your way home.”

  ***

  Tatiana and Jessa went out onto the wide stone balcony, trying to figure out the dance together.

  “We need three!” Tatiana called through the window.

  “You learn it first,” Alexander said, “then you can teach it to us.”

  Alexander peered around the door and with a satisfied nod, closed it behind him. The rest of us walked down the hall to Dorian’s study. Viviane took the large seat behind Dorian’s desk and Alexander in the one opposite her. Lucian drifted in after us, seemingly distracted by reading the spines of the rather impressive amount of books Dorian had on his shelves. After a moment’s hesitation, I perched on the edge of the desk.

  “This changes everything,” Alexander said, running a hand through his thick hair.

  “How exactly?” Viviane asked. “So what if we can open the portal to Lucian’s world? We can’t free the demons right now, when we’re nearly at war with Aubade. We need more demons, not less.”

  Lucian coughed into his book, and a framed print fell off the wall on the other side of the room.

  “I realize it’s selfish,” Viviane said, her voice shaking, “but did you see what they did, when we were back at the Academy? I—I couldn’t… We can’t free more demons. They aren’t all like Lucian.”

  “Is there any way we could get Gwen’s charm?” I asked.

  Alexander shook his head. “The king is probably surrounded by a thousand guards right now, preparing to march on Aubade.”

  “Well, that limits our options,” I said. “Without the pendant, we can’t get into the chamber, anyway. And if the king wears it to war, it will be even harder to retrieve it without him noticing.”

  Perhaps, you should free Aubade’s demons, Lucian said.

  “We can’t,” I said, “if it fell, it would kill everyone in the kingdom.”

  Alexander and Viviane looked at me.

  “Lucian said we should free their demons,” I said, “so—”

  “So they crash!” Alexander exclaimed, his eyes alight with excitement. “Sink them before they can sink us?”

  “We can’t do that,” I frowned. “It would kill thousands of people.”

  “But that’s exactly what they tried to do to us,” Viviane said.

  “We don’t know that it was them,” I said quickly. “Celeste could have been working on her own. Who’s to say that we didn’t cause all this, by opening the chamber. We have to find a way to stop this war.”

  “It’s not just about this war,” Alexander said. “Imagine if this secret gets out, and mages rediscover how to access the demon realm? It’ll be an arms race, with each kingdom destroying more and more worlds in their quest for power. You know this has to end somehow.”

  “By killing everyone in Aubade?” I asked.

  “It’s us or them,” Viviane said, her eyes hard.

  “And if we fall, we’re going to destroy everything beneath us,” Alexander said. “That’s the most heavily populated part of Argent and Plumba. We aren’t just talking about us. We’re talking about innocent people below us, too. If it’s anything like the first war with Aubade, the death toll is going to be very high. The quicker this war ends, the more lives we can save.”

  My breath caught in my throat. Sterling and Briar were in Plumba. I shook my head, even as I felt my resolve wavering.

  “But it’s impossible,” I said. “Even if we got their door open, and there’s no reason we’d be able to, you would need a thousand mages to unseal all the demons, or move all the crystals. It would take months—”

  I squeezed the pillow on the couch tightly, my anxiety increasing. “That’s why it’s a suicide mission!” I exclaimed suddenly, standing up. “The king knows, even if Dorian gets access to the demon chamber, he’ll never be able to contain and transport so many demons. And if he just stole the stones, he wouldn’t be able to escape Aubade before the kingdom crashed.”

  I heard a gasp and turned to find Jessa in the doorway, silhouetted in the light behind here. Her face was pale.

  “That’s where Dorian is?” Jessa asked, her lip trembling. “You all knew?”

  “It’s not what you think,” I said quickly. I reached out to her but she recoiled away from me.

  “How could you not tell me?” Jessa said. “I still have family in Aubade, and you’re all calmly talking about genocide. Plotting the destruction of my kingdom. If Dorian takes down Aubade, tens of thousands of people will die. We have to warn them!”

  “I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Alexander said, pulling back the window curtain. “Kit sent troops to guard the Rosewood estate,” he said, nodding to the evenly space row of soldiers outside. They were in nearly all black now, and wearing so many plates of dark armor that they looked like large insects. Even their faces were covered in low, shielded helmets.

  “They gave me a message when I arrived,” Alexander, pulling out a scroll with a broken wax seal. “The king has seized executive powers over Reverie and launched his war on Aubade. They’ll burn the crops at first, and conscript soldiers from the Lower Realms. That way, the citizens will eagerly serve just for food. Death by sword is better than starvation.”

  Now it was my turn to be horrified. The king was intentionally starving his own people, so they’d join his army? Guilt ate away at my stomach. I hadn’t been dropping as much food as I should have, which meant Sterling and Briar had probably gone hungry. What if they’d already signed up for the king’s war?

  “My point is,” Alexander continued, “you can’t leave. Your parents are probably being transported to a more secure prison as we speak, and the border agents would never permit you to return to Aubade now. You’re safer here with us.”

  Jessa clenched her hands into fists, I’d never seen her look so angry before. She spun on her heel and headed down the hall to her room. After a moment, I heard her door slam. I saw Tati out the window, holding the journal and still practicing on the wide porch. She flinched and turned towards the house, before going back to practice. The slow, elegant movements reminded me of something.

  “This one time in dance class,” I said, “Professor Conrad moved from one end of the room to another in the blink of an eye. If this dance creates portals to other realms, do you think it could create portals in space as well?”

  “What are you thinking?” Alexander asked.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Something like how Lucian’s charm lets me pass through walls. Imagine a thief who could steal from one kingdom and have the stolen goods instantly appear in another kingdom.”

  “Then Dorian could move the crystals from one demon chamber to another,” Viviane said, catching on quickly.

  “Without getting himself kille
d,” I finished.

  The light bulb exploded above us, lighting the lampshade on fire. It floated down in burning tatters of fire and fabric. Lucian buried his face between his hands and sat silently beside me, looking as though he was barely keeping himself together. In fact, his shoulders were literally dissolving into ash and smoke, that rose above his head like a storm cloud.

  You care about your nobleman so much, you would keep my race enslaved, not to mention destroy Jessa’s kingdom? I knew the princeling would betray me, but I thought you’d be better.

  “What’s he saying?” Viviane asked.

  “He doesn’t like this plan,” I said.

  “Of course it’s not ideal,” Alexander said, gesturing at the walls until I pointed him in the direction of the couch where Lucian was sitting. “But these demons, they’re already trapped. They probably won’t even notice being moved to another chamber. And we can free them slowly, later. Once the threat from Aubade has passed.”

  “We only take half,” I said suddenly. “Or maybe less. Enough to cause Aubade to sink into a slow decline. They could still have months before hitting the ground; enough to evacuate and make plans on how to survive in the Lower Realms. Once that’s done, we could work on freeing all the demons in Reverie as well.”

  You’ll never get the king to agree to that.

  “But it’s better than war,” I said. “For everyone, demons included.”

  Lucian sighed and darted out of the room in the form of a shaggy black dog. He nipped at Alexander’s ankles as he left, causing the prince to stumble backwards into a vase. Viviane was searching through Dorian’s desk when I turned back, and she gave a squeal of victory as she held up a bottle of amber whiskey in a crystal decanter.

  “Not quite potion,” she said, “but it will calm my nerves. You two continue plotting while I find us some glasses.”

  Alexander pulled me away from the door, coaxing me into sitting on the sofa. Then, he tore back the drapes, flooding the room with light. I blinked against the sudden brightness, holding up a hand to shield my eyes. Outside, the gardens were nearly in full bloom, awash with pink and red flowers, and beyond that, I saw the edge of Reverie, marked by its elaborate iron fence. The red crystals sparkled like flaming roses in the sun. The sky was blue and cloudless.

  Alexander glanced at the oil portrait behind me and paused, his face contemplative.

  “You do look just like your mother,” he said. “All you need are flowers to weave in your hair.” He plucked a stem of white flowers from a nearby vase and tucked it behind my ear.

  I forced a smile. I felt as though Alexander and I were walking on thin ice, and one of us was about to snap and fall into the water. I raised my bare feet slowly, placing them on the edge of the sofa cushion as Alexander sat beside me. The folds of my black dress tumbled against his dark slacks, merging until it almost looked like he was the one wearing a dress. The dark sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, and the light pulled out the subtle patterns of the fabric. When he leaned forward on his forearms and bowed his golden head, it looked like he had a halo. I had a wild, impulsive thought of stroking his hair, but I didn’t.

  “I don’t like this,” I said. “The Lower Realms are going to be filled with Aubade’s troops. We’d have to make it all the way there, find a way onto the floating kingdom, and still have no idea how to open Aubade’s chamber. Plus Dorian is already trying, and he seems to have already accepted failure. That’s why he left that stupid dress.”

  “Maybe leaving Reverie is the best move for all of us,” Viviane said. “Maybe it’s so broken, it can’t be fixed from the inside. That’s why Nick left, right?”

  “Dorian left the journal behind,” I said quietly, “which means he doesn’t know about the hidden symbols or the portal dance. And now he’s in danger. But going after him is dangerous too, and we don’t even know if we’d be able to access Aubade’s chamber. Nick might have known, but he doesn’t mention it in the journal. If only we could find out what really happened to him after Gwen’s death.”

  “You know,” Alexander said thoughtfully, pointing to a stern-looking oil portrait across the room. “There’s one more person you haven’t talked to that might know what happened to Nick… his sister-in-law, Eleanor.”

  “They were never married,” Viviane said.

  “Are you calling me a bastard?” I asked.

  “Takes one to know one,” she replied, sticking her tongue out at me.

  ***

  The door creaked open, and the parlor maid entered. She was pretty and young, only a few years older than me, with red hair and green eyes. I didn’t recognize her, so she must’ve been new. “Your Royal Highness, Lady Wynter,” she said, as she placed a silver tray laden with pastries, fruit, and tea before us.

  “We just ate breakfast,” I said, staring at all the food.

  “This is just a late tea,” she curtsied. “Do you require anything else, Lady Wynter?”

  “You don’t have to use a title for me,” I said awkwardly.

  “The title is no hardship to me,” she replied. “It is an honor to pay respect to any relation of His Lordship.”

  “Do you know if Eleanor is awake?” I asked, as she turned towards the door.

  “I do not,” she said, “But I’ll gladly check. Lady Sherrinford often rises early.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  She curtsied once more and left. I stared after her for a few seconds, vaguely unsettled at being able to command people and being called a title I didn’t feel I deserved. Alexander picked at a pastry, flaky and covered with raspberry jam and icing.

  “Why Eleanor?” I asked.

  “She knew Nick,” he replied. “Maybe she knows something. I don’t know how helpful knowing about your father will be, but it’s…it’s better than nothing.”

  I narrowed my eyes.

  “Especially if…if people are after me because of him. People from Aubade. Jessa must be so—”

  “I haven’t told Jessa,” Alexander said, “about her father’s involvement. I doubt she knows, and I didn’t think it would—well—do anything but hurt her.”

  “Thank you,” I replied.

  Alexander nodded.

  I poured a cup of tea, mostly so I’d have something to keep me from fidgeting. “Your father mentioned we ought to be married,” I blurted awkwardly.

  Lucian made a gagging noise. I studied Alexander’s profile, and caught the clench of his jaw at the suggestion.

  “After I’m Countess of Rosewood,” I said. “The king thinks my gift for speaking to demons might be…helpful to the royal family. He thinks I could help gain their trust.” But I didn’t care what the king thought; I wanted to know how Alexander felt about the idea.

  He doesn’t seem thrilled, Lucian said. I startled, I hadn’t seen him come back into the room.

  “So Viv was right. Father does want Dorian to die,” Alexander said. “I’d hoped…well. I hoped it wasn’t true, but I don’t think…I’m sorry, Wynter. For everything.”

  “You don’t need to apologize. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I don’t know that I’ve done anything right either,” Alexander said. “I should’ve been at the Academy when those demons attacked. I’m supposed to protect the people of Reverie, and I—I wasn’t there when they needed me.”

  “It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Eleanor said. She stood in the doorway, wine glass in hand, with Francisca just behind her. And despite the seriousness of the moment, I choked back a laugh at the sight of Eleanor’s beautiful, black gown. Eleanor arched an eyebrow and sat primly in a vacant chair near us.

  “Is something amusing to you?” Eleanor asked.

  “It’s just something mean your brother said,” I replied.

  Francisca took her position standing behind Eleanor’s chair. Her brown eyes softened as she gazed over my head, doubtlessly looking at the portrait of her master and his sisters when they
were younger. I wondered what plans there were for her if Dorian never returned.

  “So what did you want?” Eleanor asked. “I was quite busy, engaging in the great aristocratic pastime of doing nothing productive.”

  I took a steadying breath. “You knew Nick,” I said.

  Eleanor tensed. “I did,” she admitted warily.

  “Do you know if he survived?” Alexander asked. “Where he went, after Gwen’s death?”

  Eleanor tensed, sinking back in her chair. She took a long sip of wine and focused her eyes on her glass. “Why do you ask?”

  “Because I suspect all of this has something to do with him,” I said. “Did he ever talk to you about going to Aubade, about the demon chamber?”

  “You sound like Dorian,” Eleanor sniffed. “Right before he abandoned his family. Shall we expect more from you?”

  “Dorian is my family, and I’m trying to protect him,” I said.

  Eleanor’s eyes found mine, and there was a flicker in them that looked a lot like hope. But then she studied my face, sighed, and returned to her wine glass.

  “You don’t—you don’t need to know this,” she murmured.

  “If you know something, you need to tell us,” Alexander said. “The entire kingdom could be at stake.”

  Eleanor’s eyes darted between us, as if looking for an escape.

  “He’s my father,” I said, gently. “I have a right to know.”

  “Your father was just some urchin from the Lower Realms,” Eleanor said. “If you look after him, you’re only looking for trouble.”

  “I’m ordering you to tell us,” Alexander said, “As your prince and your superior.”

  “I don’t care what you are,” Eleanor said, standing quickly. “You don’t realize what you’re asking me to confess. Besides, it was almost eighteen years ago. It doesn’t matter anymore.”

  “If it doesn’t matter, why didn’t you tell Dorian about it?” I asked.

  This was a gamble. Whatever she was hiding, I didn’t know whether she’d told Dorian, but at the sound of his name, all the color drained from Eleanor’s face. I felt a spark of guilt, but I had to know the truth.